I realize upon second glance, I didn’t properly end my post yesterday entitled Sexy Brazilian Privacy. Then again, I’m not sure how one truly ends sexy Brazilian privacy.

Oh, Right.

I suppose I jumped the gun a bit, in wanting to end my post on a high note. In regards to the PS4 being too expensive in Brazil at launch, I probably should have ended with something like…c’mon Brazil, eventually Sony will get sick of their little game and, you know, cut the price.

Sony’s Just Being Very Ungamer, Brazil.

Send them a clear messsage: you don’t roll on launch day. (Not for $1800 anyways)

I thoroughly considered doing a full follow up to yesterdays post, entitled Sexy Brazilian Privacy 2: Pirate’s Booty, but refused to run through all of my good Kinect related material while simultaneously poking fun at foreigners so quickly.

A Lesson I Learned A Long Time Ago.

In any case, there’s other more pressing matters then sexy Brazilian privacy at hand, and that’s sexy American privacy.

Ellen Page Is Not Amused.

Apparently, some squirrely gamer got their hands on a dev kit for Beyond: Two Souls, and then got their eyes on a graphical representation of nude Ellen Page, which was then handed off to the internet.This escalated quickly, to the point where Sony has already cracked down on a slew of websites hosting any of the revealing images. This is the internet of course, so I’m sure this unfortunate exposure will survive even the most vengeful of purges, but it does raise good questions about litigious courses of action.

When Law Gets Real

Whether Miss Page or not is going to sue is unclear. What is clear, is shes super pissed about the invasion of her privacy, and rightfully so. She did not sign up for such things, and it would seem Quantic Dream completely overlooked gamers and modders basic knowledge of technology in the filming of the shower scene. Video games can blur the lines of right or wrong, in this case, identifying what the wrong is and who’s responsible. Is Quantic Dream held liable for violating the rights of Page’s likeness? Should the person who initially posted the pictured be tried for defamation of character? Would a court even consider this Ellen Page naked, considering it’s a polygonal representation of a character she played?

And how pissed off can individuals really become, when faced with lewd materials not intended for the retail release of a game?

Super Fucking Pissed Off, It Turns Out.

I’m sure someone more knowledgeable in the ways of the law would be able to answer this in a heart beat, but that wouldn’t make the situation any less odd. While I don’t think this is going to be really damning to any parties involved in the long run, it does bring into question the semantics of video games, and how laws could benefit for their accommodation. Maybe not so much to this extreme, but an examination of Nintendo’s case against Full Screen Mario, reminds us of how much our law system, even with something as simple as video games, needs a thorough re-haul, in taking into account our ambitious virtual medium.

I fully encourage us to do focus on what matters, and how best to legislate our own reality as best we can. We shouldn’t, however, be so quick to discount the importance of our virtual realities, in relation to our own justice system.